Measurement period formulation for reference signal time difference (rstd) measurements

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are techniques for wireless positioning. In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) receives a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration, the PRS configuration including at least a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRS resources associated with at least a first transmission-reception point (TRP), receives a measurement gap configuration including at least a measurement gap repetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap, and performs one or more positioning measurements of at least the one or more PRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having an effective measurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a time period T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present Application for Pat. is a continuation of U.S. ApplicationNo. 17/385,582, entitled “MEASUREMENT PERIOD FORMULATION FOR REFERENCESIGNAL TIME DIFFERENCE (RSTD) MEASUREMENTS,” filed Jul. 26, 2021, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/059,133,entitled “MEASUREMENT PERIOD FORMULATION FOR REFERENCE SIGNAL TIMEDIFFERENCE (RSTD) MEASUREMENTS,” filed Jul. 30, 2020, each of which isassigned to the assignee hereof, and expressly incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 1. Field of the Disclosure

Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to wireless communications.

2. Description of the Related Art

Wireless communication systems have developed through variousgenerations, including a first-generation analog wireless phone service(1G), a second-generation (2G) digital wireless phone service (includinginterim 2.5G and 2.75G networks), a third-generation (3G) high speeddata, Internet-capable wireless service and a fourth-generation (4G)service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). There are presentlymany different types of wireless communication systems in use, includingcellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples ofknown cellular systems include the cellular analog advanced mobile phonesystem (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code divisionmultiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), timedivision multiple access (TDMA), the Global System for Mobilecommunications (GSM), etc.

A fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, referred to as New Radio(NR), calls for higher data transfer speeds, greater numbers ofconnections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The 5Gstandard, according to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, isdesigned to provide data rates of several tens of megabits per second toeach of tens of thousands of users, with 1 gigabit per second to tens ofworkers on an office floor. Several hundreds of thousands ofsimultaneous connections should be supported in order to support largesensor deployments. Consequently, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobilecommunications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiencies should be enhanced andlatency should be substantially reduced compared to current standards.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or moreaspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary should not beconsidered an extensive overview relating to all contemplated aspects,nor should the following summary be considered to identify key orcritical elements relating to all contemplated aspects or to delineatethe scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, thefollowing summary has the sole purpose to present certain conceptsrelating to one or more aspects relating to the mechanisms disclosedherein in a simplified form to precede the detailed descriptionpresented below.

In an aspect, a method of wireless positioning performed by a userequipment (UE) includes receiving a positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for at least a first transmission-reception point (TRP),the PRS configuration including at least a PRS periodicity definingrepetitions of one or more PRS resources associated with the first TRP;receiving a measurement gap configuration from a serving base station,the measurement gap configuration indicating at least a measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap; andperforming one or more positioning measurements of at least the one ormore PRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurementperiod, the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having aneffective measurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicitybased on an alignment periodicity and a time period T during which theUE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicitybased on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes a memory; at least onetransceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to thememory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processorconfigured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, a positioningreference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; receive, via the at least onetransceiver, a measurement gap configuration from a serving basestation, the measurement gap configuration indicating at least ameasurement gap repetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of ameasurement gap; and perform one or more positioning measurements of atleast the one or more PRS resources during one or more repetitions of ameasurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurementperiod having an effective measurement periodicity, the effectivemeasurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a timeperiod T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols,the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes means for receiving apositioning reference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; means for receiving ameasurement gap configuration from a serving base station, themeasurement gap configuration indicating at least a measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap; andmeans for performing one or more positioning measurements of at leastthe one or more PRS resources during one or more repetitions of ameasurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurementperiod having an effective measurement periodicity, the effectivemeasurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a timeperiod T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols,the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storescomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment(UE), cause the UE to: receive a positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for at least a first transmission-reception point (TRP),the PRS configuration including at least a PRS periodicity definingrepetitions of one or more PRS resources associated with the first TRP;receive a measurement gap configuration from a serving base station, themeasurement gap configuration indicating at least a measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of at least the one or morePRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurement period,the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having aneffective measurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicitybased on an alignment periodicity and a time period T during which theUE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicitybased on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosedherein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on theaccompanying drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the description ofvarious aspects of the disclosure and are provided solely forillustration of the aspects and not limitation thereof.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communications system, accordingto aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate example wireless network structures,according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are simplified block diagrams of several sampleaspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), abase station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured tosupport communications as taught herein.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioningprotocol (LPP) call flow between a UE and a location server forperforming positioning operations.

FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating an example frame structure, accordingto aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 5B is a diagram illustrating various downlink channels within anexample downlink slot, according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an example positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for the PRS transmissions of a given base station,according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of example PRS resource sets having different timegaps, according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating how the parameters of a measurement gapconfiguration specify a pattern of measurement gaps, according toaspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example PRS periodicity and time durationspanned by three downlink PRS resources based on a Type II UE durationcapability.

FIG. 10 illustrates different scenarios comparing the subframes thateach PRS occasion spans and the subframes that the closest measurementgap occasion covers, according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example method of wireless positioning, accordingto aspects of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the disclosure are provided in the following description andrelated drawings directed to various examples provided for illustrationpurposes. Alternate aspects may be devised without departing from thescope of the disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of thedisclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as notto obscure the relevant details of the disclosure.

The words “exemplary” and/or “example” are used herein to mean “servingas an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described hereinas “exemplary” and/or “example” is not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term“aspects of the disclosure” does not require that all aspects of thedisclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode ofoperation.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the information andsignals described below may be represented using any of a variety ofdifferent technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions,commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may bereferenced throughout the description below may be represented byvoltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles,optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending inpart on the particular application, in part on the desired design, inpart on the corresponding technology, etc.

Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions tobe performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will berecognized that various actions described herein can be performed byspecific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits(ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or moreprocessors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, the sequence(s)of actions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirelywithin any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumhaving stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions that,upon execution, would cause or instruct an associated processor of adevice to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, the variousaspects of the disclosure may be embodied in a number of differentforms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of theclaimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects describedherein, the corresponding form of any such aspects may be describedherein as, for example, “logic configured to” perform the describedaction.

As used herein, the terms “user equipment” (UE) and “base station” arenot intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular radioaccess technology (RAT), unless otherwise noted. In general, a UE may beany wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tabletcomputer, laptop computer, consumer asset locating device, wearable(e.g., smartwatch, glasses, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality(VR) headset, etc.), vehicle (e.g., automobile, motorcycle, bicycle,etc.), Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user tocommunicate over a wireless communications network. A UE may be mobileor may (e.g., at certain times) be stationary, and may communicate witha radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term “UE” may bereferred to interchangeably as an “access terminal” or “AT,” a “clientdevice,” a “wireless device,” a “subscriber device,” a “subscriberterminal,” a “subscriber station,” a “user terminal” or “UT,” a “mobiledevice,” a “mobile terminal,” a “mobile station,” or variations thereof.Generally, UEs can communicate with a core network via a RAN, andthrough the core network the UEs can be connected with external networkssuch as the Internet and with other UEs. .Of course, other mechanisms ofconnecting to the core network and/or the Internet are also possible forthe UEs, such as over wired access networks, wireless local area network(WLAN) networks (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.) and so on.

A base station may operate according to one of several RATs incommunication with UEs depending on the network in which it is deployed,and may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), a networknode, a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), aNew Radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. A basestation may be used primarily to support wireless access by UEs,including supporting data, voice, and/or signaling connections for thesupported UEs. In some systems a base station may provide purely edgenode signaling functions while in other systems it may provideadditional control and/or network management functions. A communicationlink through which UEs can send signals to a base station is called anuplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse controlchannel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through whichthe base station can send signals to UEs is called a downlink (DL) orforward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, abroadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein theterm traffic channel (TCH) can refer to either an uplink / reverse ordownlink / forward traffic channel.

The term “base station” may refer to a single physicaltransmission-reception point (TRP) or to multiple physical TRPs that mayor may not be co-located. For example, where the term “base station”refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna ofthe base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) ofthe base station. Where the term “base station” refers to multipleco-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be an array of antennas(e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where thebase station employs beamforming) of the base station. Where the term“base station” refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, thephysical TRPs may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network ofspatially separated antennas connected to a common source via atransport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base stationconnected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-locatedphysical TRPs may be the serving base station receiving the measurementreport from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radiofrequency (RF) signals the UE is measuring. Because a TRP is the pointfrom which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, asused herein, references to transmission from or reception at a basestation are to be understood as referring to a particular TRP of thebase station.

In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base stationmay not support wireless access by UEs (e.g., may not support data,voice, and/or signaling connections for UEs), but may instead transmitreference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs, and/or may receiveand measure signals transmitted by the UEs. Such a base station may bereferred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when transmitting signals toUEs) and/or as a location measurement unit (e.g., when receiving andmeasuring signals from UEs).

An “RF signal” comprises an electromagnetic wave of a given frequencythat transports information through the space between a transmitter anda receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single “RFsignal” or multiple “RF signals” to a receiver. However, the receivermay receive multiple “RF signals” corresponding to each transmitted RFsignal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals throughmultipath channels. The same transmitted RF signal on different pathsbetween the transmitter and receiver may be referred to as a “multipath”RF signal. As used herein, an RF signal may also be referred to as a“wireless signal” or simply a “signal” where it is clear from thecontext that the term “signal” refers to a wireless signal or an RFsignal.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communications system 100,according to aspects of the disclosure. The wireless communicationssystem 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide areanetwork (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled “BS”) andvarious UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macro cell basestations (high power cellular base stations) and/or small cell basestations (low power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macrocell base stations may include eNBs and/or ng-eNBs where the wirelesscommunications system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs wherethe wireless communications system 100 corresponds to a NR network, or acombination of both, and the small cell base stations may includefemtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with acore network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC))through backhaul links 122, and through the core network 170 to one ormore location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) ora secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)). Thelocation server(s) 172 may be part of core network 170 or may beexternal to core network 170. A location server 172 may be integratedwith a base station 102. A UE 104 may communicate with a location server172 directly or indirectly. For example, a UE 104 may communicate with alocation server 172 via the base station 102 that is currently servingthat UE 104. A UE 104 may also communicate with a location server 172through another path, such as via an application server (not shown), viaanother network, such as via a wireless local area network (WLAN) accesspoint (AP) (e.g., AP 150 described below), and so on. For signalingpurposes, communication between a UE 104 and a location server 172 maybe represented as an indirect connection (e.g., through the core network170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via direct connection128), with the intervening nodes (if any) omitted from a signalingdiagram for clarity.

In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may performfunctions that relate to one or more of transferring user data, radiochannel ciphering and deciphering, integrity protection, headercompression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dualconnectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setupand release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS)messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimediabroadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment trace, RANinformation management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery ofwarning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each otherdirectly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC / 5GC) over backhaul links134, which may be wired or wireless.

The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104. Eachof the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for arespective geographic coverage area 110. In an aspect, one or more cellsmay be supported by a base station 102 in each geographic coverage area110. A “cell” is a logical communication entity used for communicationwith a base station (e.g., over some frequency resource, referred to asa carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, or the like), andmay be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier(PCI), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier(VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) for distinguishing cellsoperating via the same or a different carrier frequency. In some cases,different cells may be configured according to different protocol types(e.g., machine-type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT),enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access fordifferent types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific basestation, the term “cell” may refer to either or both of the logicalcommunication entity and the base station that supports it, depending onthe context. In addition, because a TRP is typically the physicaltransmission point of a cell, the terms “cell” and “TRP” may be usedinterchangeably. In some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to ageographic coverage area of a base station (e.g., a sector), insofar asa carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication withinsome portion of geographic coverage areas 110.

While neighboring macro cell base station 102 geographic coverage areas110 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover region), some of thegeographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by alarger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell basestation 102′ (labeled “SC” for “small cell”) may have a geographiccoverage area 110′ that substantially overlaps with the geographiccoverage area 110 of one or more macro cell base stations 102. A networkthat includes both small cell and macro cell base stations may be knownas a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also includehome eNBs (HeNBs), which may provide service to a restricted group knownas a closed subscriber group (CSG).

The communication links 120 between the base stations 102 and the UEs104 may include uplink (also referred to as reverse link) transmissionsfrom a UE 104 to a base station 102 and/or downlink (DL) (also referredto as forward link) transmissions from a base station 102 to a UE 104.The communication links 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, includingspatial multiplexing, beamforming, and/or transmit diversity. Thecommunication links 120 may be through one or more carrier frequencies.Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to downlink anduplink (e.g., more or less carriers may be allocated for downlink thanfor uplink).

The wireless communications system 100 may further include a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication withWLAN stations (STAs) 152 via communication links 154 in an unlicensedfrequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in an unlicensedfrequency spectrum, the WLAN STAs 152 and/or the WLAN AP 150 may performa clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk (LBT) procedureprior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel isavailable.

The small cell base station 102′ may operate in a licensed and/or anunlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequencyspectrum, the small cell base station 102′ may employ LTE or NRtechnology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum as usedby the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102′, employing LTE / 5Gin an unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage to and/orincrease capacity of the access network. NR in unlicensed spectrum maybe referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred toas LTE-U, licensed assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

The wireless communications system 100 may further include a millimeterwave (mmW) base station 180 that may operate in mmW frequencies and/ornear mmW frequencies in communication with a UE 182. Extremely highfrequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHFhas a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeterand 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as amillimeter wave. Near mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with awavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) bandextends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, also referred to as centimeter wave.Communications using the mmW/near mmW radio frequency band have highpath loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and theUE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and/or receive) over a mmWcommunication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path lossand short range. Further, it will be appreciated that in alternativeconfigurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit usingmmW or near mmW and beamforming. Accordingly, it will be appreciatedthat the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not beconstrued to limit the various aspects disclosed herein.

Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in aspecific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a basestation) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in alldirections (omni-directionally). With transmit beamforming, the networknode determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located(relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a strongerdownlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing afaster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal for the receivingdevice(s). To change the directionality of the RF signal whentransmitting, a network node can control the phase and relativeamplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters thatare broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node may use anarray of antennas (referred to as a “phased array” or an “antennaarray”) that creates a beam of RF waves that can be “steered” to pointin different directions, without actually moving the antennas.Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to theindividual antennas with the correct phase relationship so that theradio waves from the separate antennas add together to increase theradiation in a desired direction, while cancelling to suppress radiationin undesired directions.

Transmit beams may be quasi-co-located, meaning that they appear to thereceiver (e.g., a UE) as having the same parameters, regardless ofwhether or not the transmitting antennas of the network node themselvesare physically co-located. In NR, there are four types ofquasi-co-location (QCL) relations. Specifically, a QCL relation of agiven type means that certain parameters about a second reference RFsignal on a second beam can be derived from information about a sourcereference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RFsignal is QCL Type A, the receiver can use the source reference RFsignal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, anddelay spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type B, the receivercan use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift andDoppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type C, the receivercan use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift andaverage delay of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receivercan use the source reference RF signal to estimate the spatial receiveparameter of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel.

In receive beamforming, the receiver uses a receive beam to amplify RFsignals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver canincrease the gain setting and/or adjust the phase setting of an array ofantennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., to increase thegain level of) the RF signals received from that direction. Thus, when areceiver is said to beamform in a certain direction, it means the beamgain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along otherdirections, or the beam gain in that direction is the highest comparedto the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams availableto the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength(e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receivedquality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), etc.) ofthe RF signals received from that direction.

Transmit and receive beams may be spatially related. A spatial relationmeans that parameters for a second beam (e.g., a transmit or receivebeam) for a second reference signal can be derived from informationabout a first beam (e.g., a receive beam or a transmit beam) for a firstreference signal. For example, a UE may use a particular receive beam toreceive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., synchronizationsignal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE can then form a transmitbeam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., sounding referencesignal (SRS)) to that base station based on the parameters of thereceive beam.

Note that a “downlink” beam may be either a transmit beam or a receivebeam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if a base stationis forming the downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to a UE, thedownlink beam is a transmit beam. If the UE is forming the downlinkbeam, however, it is a receive beam to receive the downlink referencesignal. Similarly, an “uplink” beam may be either a transmit beam or areceive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if a basestation is forming the uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, and ifa UE is forming the uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., basestations 102/180, UEs 104/182) operate is divided into multiplefrequency ranges, FR1 (from 450 to 6000 MHz), FR2 (from 24250 to 52600MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). mmWfrequency bands generally include the FR2, FR3, and FR4 frequencyranges. As such, the terms “mmW” and “FR2” or “FR3” or “FR4” maygenerally be used interchangeably.

In a multi-carrier system, such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies isreferred to as the “primary carrier” or “anchor carrier” or “primaryserving cell” or “PCell,” and the remaining carrier frequencies arereferred to as “secondary carriers” or “secondary serving cells” or“SCells.” In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is the carrieroperating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by a UE 104/182and the cell in which the UE 104/182 either performs the initial radioresource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiatesthe RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carriercarries all common and UE-specific control channels, and may be acarrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case).A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g.,FR2) that may be configured once the RRC connection is establishedbetween the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and that may be used toprovide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carriermay be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier maycontain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example,those that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier,since both primary uplink and downlink carriers are typicallyUE-specific. This means that different UEs 104/182 in a cell may havedifferent downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplinkprimary carriers. The network is able to change the primary carrier ofany UE 104/182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance theload on different carriers. Because a “serving cell” (whether a PCell oran SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency / component carrier overwhich some base station is communicating, the term “cell,” “servingcell,” “component carrier,” “carrier frequency,” and the like can beused interchangeably.

For example, still referring to FIG. 1 , one of the frequencies utilizedby the macro cell base stations 102 may be an anchor carrier (or“PCell”) and other frequencies utilized by the macro cell base stations102 and/or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers(“SCells”). The simultaneous transmission and/or reception of multiplecarriers enables the UE 104/182 to significantly increase its datatransmission and/or reception rates. For example, two 20 MHz aggregatedcarriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically lead to atwo-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz), compared to that attainedby a single 20 MHz carrier.

The wireless communications system 100 may further include a UE 164 thatmay communicate with a macro cell base station 102 over a communicationlink 120 and/or the mmW base station 180 over a mmW communication link184. For example, the macro cell base station 102 may support a PCelland one or more SCells for the UE 164 and the mmW base station 180 maysupport one or more SCells for the UE 164.

In the example of FIG. 1 , any of the illustrated UEs (shown in FIG. 1as a single UE 104 for simplicity) may receive signals 124 from one ormore Earth orbiting space vehicles (SVs) 112 (e.g., satellites). In anaspect, the SVs 112 may be part of a satellite positioning system that aUE 104 can use as an independent source of location information. Asatellite positioning system typically includes a system of transmitters(e.g., SVs 112) positioned to enable receivers (e.g., UEs 104) todetermine their location on or above the Earth based, at least in part,on positioning signals (e.g., signals 124) received from thetransmitters. Such a transmitter typically transmits a signal markedwith a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips.While typically located in SVs 112, transmitters may sometimes belocated on ground-based control stations, base stations 102, and/orother UEs 104. A UE 104 may include one or more dedicated receiversspecifically designed to receive signals 124 for deriving geo locationinformation from the SVs 112.

In a satellite positioning system, the use of signals 124 can beaugmented by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) thatmay be associated with or otherwise enabled for use with one or moreglobal and/or regional navigation satellite systems. For example an SBASmay include an augmentation system(s) that provides integrityinformation, differential corrections, etc., such as the Wide AreaAugmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary NavigationOverlay Service (EGNOS), the Multifunctional Satellite AugmentationSystem (MSAS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) Aided Geo AugmentedNavigation or GPS and Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN), and/orthe like. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system mayinclude any combination of one or more global and/or regional navigationsatellites associated with such one or more satellite positioningsystems.

In an aspect, SVs 112 may additionally or alternatively be part of oneor more non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). In an NTN, an SV 112 isconnected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTNgateway, or gateway), which in turn is connected to an element in a 5Gnetwork, such as a modified base station 102 (without a terrestrialantenna) or a network node in a 5GC. This element would in turn provideaccess to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately to entitiesexternal to the 5G network, such as Internet web servers and other userdevices. In that way, a UE 104 may receive communication signals (e.g.,signals 124) from an SV 112 instead of, or in addition to, communicationsignals from a terrestrial base station 102.

The wireless communications system 100 may further include one or moreUEs, such as UE 190, that connects indirectly to one or morecommunication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D)peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). In the example ofFIG. 1 , UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connectedto one of the base stations 102 (e.g., through which UE 190 mayindirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 withWLAN STA 152 connected to the WLAN AP 150 (through which UE 190 mayindirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, theD2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported with any well-known D2D RAT,such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, and so on.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure 200. Forexample, a 5GC 210 (also referred to as a Next Generation Core (NGC))can be viewed functionally as control plane (C-plane) functions 214(e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gatewayselection, etc.) and user plane (U-plane) functions 212, (e.g., UEgateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.) whichoperate cooperatively to form the core network. User plane interface(NG-U) 213 and control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 tothe 5GC 210 and specifically to the user plane functions 212 and controlplane functions 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, anng-eNB 224 may also be connected to the 5GC 210 via NG-C 215 to thecontrol plane functions 214 and NG-U 213 to user plane functions 212.Further, ng-eNB 224 may directly communicate with gNB 222 via a backhaulconnection 223. In some configurations, a Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)220 may have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations includeone or more of both ng-eNBs 224 and gNBs 222. Either (or both) gNB 222or ng-eNB 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of theUEs described herein).

Another optional aspect may include a location server 230, which may bein communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance forUE(s) 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as a plurality ofseparate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different softwaremodules on a single server, different software modules spread acrossmultiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond toa single server. The location server 230 can be configured to supportone or more location services for UEs 204 that can connect to thelocation server 230 via the core network, 5GC 210, and/or via theInternet (not illustrated). Further, the location server 230 may beintegrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively may beexternal to the core network (e.g., a third party server, such as anoriginal equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or service server).

FIG. 2B illustrates another example wireless network structure 250. A5GC 260 (which may correspond to 5GC 210 in FIG. 2A) can be viewedfunctionally as control plane functions, provided by an access andmobility management function (AMF) 264, and user plane functions,provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate cooperativelyto form the core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264include registration management, connection management, reachabilitymanagement, mobility management, lawful interception, transport forsession management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., anyof the UEs described herein) and a session management function (SMF)266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, accessauthentication and access authorization, transport for short messageservice (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and the short message servicefunction (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF).The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF)(not shown) and the UE 204, and receives the intermediate key that wasestablished as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In thecase of authentication based on a UMTS (universal mobiletelecommunications system) subscriber identity module (USIM), the AMF264 retrieves the security material from the AUSF. The functions of theAMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receivesa key from the SEAF that it uses to derive access-network specific keys.The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location servicesmanagement for regulatory services, transport for location servicesmessages between the UE 204 and a location management function (LMF) 270(which acts as a location server 230), transport for location servicesmessages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, evolved packet system(EPS) bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the EPS, and UE204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supportsfunctionalities for non-3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project)access networks.

Functions of the UPF 262 include acting as an anchor point forintra-/inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an externalprotocol data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to a data network(not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection,user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, trafficsteering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usagereporting, quality of service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g.,uplink/ downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in thedownlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoSflow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink anddownlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notificationtriggering, and sending and forwarding of one or more “end markers” tothe source RAN node. The UPF 262 may also support transfer of locationservices messages over a user plane between the UE 204 and a locationserver, such as an SLP 272.

The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internetprotocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and controlof user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering at the UPF262 to route traffic to the proper destination, control of part ofpolicy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. Theinterface over which the SMF 266 communicates with the AMF 264 isreferred to as the N11 interface.

Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270, which may be incommunication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for UEs204. The LMF 270 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers(e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on asingle server, different software modules spread across multiplephysical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond to a singleserver. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more locationservices for UEs 204 that can connect to the LMF 270 via the corenetwork, 5GC 260, and/or via the Internet (not illustrated). The SLP 272may support similar functions to the LMF 270, but whereas the LMF 270may communicate with the AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UEs 204 over a controlplane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signalingmessages and not voice or data), the SLP 272 may communicate with UEs204 and external clients (not shown in FIG. 2B) over a user plane (e.g.,using protocols intended to carry voice and/or data like thetransmission control protocol (TCP) and/or IP).

User plane interface 263 and control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC260, and specifically the UPF 262 and AMF 264, respectively, to one ormore gNBs 222 and/or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interfacebetween gNB(s) 222 and/or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the AMF 264 is referred toas the “N2” interface, and the interface between gNB(s) 222 and/orng-eNB(s) 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the “N3” interface. ThegNB(s) 222 and/or ng-eNB(s) 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicatedirectly with each other via backhaul connections 223, referred to asthe “Xn-C” interface. One or more of gNBs 222 and/or ng-eNBs 224 maycommunicate with one or more UEs 204 over a wireless interface, referredto as the “Uu” interface.

The functionality of a gNB 222 is divided between a gNB central unit(gNB-CU) 226 and one or more gNB distributed units (gNB-DUs) 228. Theinterface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and the one or more gNB-DUs 228 isreferred to as the “F1” interface. A gNB-CU 226 is a logical node thatincludes the base station functions of transferring user data, mobilitycontrol, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management,and the like, except for those functions allocated exclusively to thegNB-DU(s) 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 hosts the radioresource control (RRC), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), andpacket data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. AgNB-DU 228 is a logical node that hosts the radio link control (RLC),medium access control (MAC), and physical (PHY) layers of the gNB 222.Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 cansupport one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU228. Thus, a UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP,and PDCP layers and with a gNB-DU 228 via the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (representedby corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated into a UE 302 (whichmay correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304(which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), anda network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any of thenetwork functions described herein, including the location server 230and the LMF 270, or alternatively may be independent from the NG-RAN 220and/or 5GC 210/260 infrastructure depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B, such as aprivate network) to support the file transmission operations as taughtherein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implementedin different types of apparatuses in different implementations (e.g., inan ASIC, in a system-on-chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated componentsmay also be incorporated into other apparatuses in a communicationsystem. For example, other apparatuses in a system may includecomponents similar to those described to provide similar functionality.Also, a given apparatus may contain one or more of the components. Forexample, an apparatus may include multiple transceiver components thatenable the apparatus to operate on multiple carriers and/or communicatevia different technologies.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 each include one or more wirelesswide area network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively,providing means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, meansfor receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means forrefraining from transmitting, etc.) via one or more wirelesscommunication networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTEnetwork, a GSM network, and/or the like. The WWAN transceivers 310 and350 may each be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356,respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as otherUEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., via at leastone designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wirelesscommunication medium of interest (e.g., some set of time/frequencyresources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310and 350 may be variously configured for transmitting and encodingsignals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and soon), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and soon), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically,the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively,for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 each also include, at least in somecases, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360,respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may beconnected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and providemeans for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means forreceiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refrainingfrom transmitting, etc.) with other network nodes, such as other UEs,access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT(e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth®, Zigbee®, Z-Wave®, PC5, dedicatedshort-range communications (DSRC), wireless access for vehicularenvironments (WAVE), near-field communication (NFC), etc.) over awireless communication medium of interest. The short-range wirelesstransceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured for transmittingand encoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications,information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receivingand decoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications,information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with thedesignated RAT. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, fortransmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one ormore receivers 322 and 362, respectively, for receiving and decodingsignals 328 and 368, respectively. As specific examples, the short-rangewireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers, Bluetooth®transceivers, Zigbee® and/or Z-Wave® transceivers, NFC transceivers, orvehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and/or vehicle-to-everything (V2X)transceivers.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 also include, at least in somecases, satellite signal receivers 330 and 370. The satellite signalreceivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336 and376, respectively, and may provide means for receiving and/or measuringsatellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378, respectively.Where the satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 are satellitepositioning system receivers, the satellite positioning/communicationsignals 338 and 378 may be global positioning system (GPS) signals,global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals,Beidou signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC),Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. Where the satellite signalreceivers 330 and 370 are non-terrestrial network (NTN) receivers, thesatellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378 may becommunication signals (e.g., carrying control and/or user data)originating from a 5G network. The satellite signal receivers 330 and370 may comprise any suitable hardware and/or software for receiving andprocessing satellite positioning/communication signals 338 and 378,respectively. The satellite signal receivers 330 and 370 may requestinformation and operations as appropriate from the other systems, and,at least in some cases, perform calculations to determine locations ofthe UE 302 and the base station 304, respectively, using measurementsobtained by any suitable satellite positioning system algorithm.

The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or morenetwork transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, providing means forcommunicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.)with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, othernetwork entities 306). For example, the base station 304 may employ theone or more network transceivers 380 to communicate with other basestations 304 or network entities 306 over one or more wired or wirelessbackhaul links. As another example, the network entity 306 may employthe one or more network transceivers 390 to communicate with one or morebase station 304 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links, orwith other network entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless corenetwork interfaces.

A transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wirelesslink. A transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wirelesstransceiver) includes transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314,324, 354, 364) and receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352,362). A transceiver may be an integrated device (e.g., embodyingtransmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry in a single device) in someimplementations, may comprise separate transmitter circuitry andseparate receiver circuitry in some implementations, or may be embodiedin other ways in other implementations. The transmitter circuitry andreceiver circuitry of a wired transceiver (e.g., network transceivers380 and 390 in some implementations) may be coupled to one or more wirednetwork interface ports. Wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g.,transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to aplurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as anantenna array, that permits the respective apparatus (e.g., UE 302, basestation 304) to perform transmit “beamforming,” as described herein.Similarly, wireless receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352,362) may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g.,antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as an antenna array, that permits therespective apparatus (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receivebeamforming, as described herein. In an aspect, the transmittercircuitry and receiver circuitry may share the same plurality ofantennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such that the respectiveapparatus can only receive or transmit at a given time, not both at thesame time. A wireless transceiver (e.g., WWAN transceivers 310 and 350,short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include anetwork listen module (NLM) or the like for performing variousmeasurements.

As used herein, the various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers310, 320, 350, and 360, and network transceivers 380 and 390 in someimplementations) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380and 390 in some implementations) may generally be characterized as “atransceiver,” “at least one transceiver,” or “one or more transceivers.”As such, whether a particular transceiver is a wired or wirelesstransceiver may be inferred from the type of communication performed.For example, backhaul communication between network devices or serverswill generally relate to signaling via a wired transceiver, whereaswireless communication between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station(e.g., base station 304) will generally relate to signaling via awireless transceiver.

The UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 alsoinclude other components that may be used in conjunction with theoperations as disclosed herein. The UE 302, the base station 304, andthe network entity 306 include one or more processors 332, 384, and 394,respectively, for providing functionality relating to, for example,wireless communication, and for providing other processingfunctionality. The processors 332, 384, and 394 may therefore providemeans for processing, such as means for determining, means forcalculating, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means forindicating, etc. In an aspect, the processors 332, 384, and 394 mayinclude, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-coreprocessors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), otherprogrammable logic devices or processing circuitry, or variouscombinations thereof.

The UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 includememory circuitry implementing memories 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., eachincluding a memory device), respectively, for maintaining information(e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds,parameters, and so on). The memories 340, 386, and 396 may thereforeprovide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining,etc. In some cases, the UE 302, the base station 304, and the networkentity 306 may include positioning component 342, 388, and 398,respectively. The positioning component 342, 388, and 398 may behardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processors 332,384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the UE 302, thebase station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform thefunctionality described herein. In other aspects, the positioningcomponent 342, 388, and 398 may be external to the processors 332, 384,and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated withanother processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioningcomponent 342,388, and 398 may be memory modules stored in the memories340, 386, and 396, respectively, that, when executed by the processors332, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, another processingsystem, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304, and the networkentity 306 to perform the functionality described herein. FIG. 3Aillustrates possible locations of the positioning component 342, whichmay be, for example, part of the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, thememory 340, the one or more processors 332, or any combination thereof,or may be a standalone component. FIG. 3B illustrates possible locationsof the positioning component 388, which may be, for example, part of theone or more WWAN transceivers 350, the memory 386, the one or moreprocessors 384, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalonecomponent. FIG. 3C illustrates possible locations of the positioningcomponent 398, which may be, for example, part of the one or morenetwork transceivers 390, the memory 396, the one or more processors394, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component.

The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the one ormore processors 332 to provide means for sensing or detecting movementand/or orientation information that is independent of motion dataderived from signals received by the one or more WWAN transceivers 310,the one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320, and/or thesatellite signal receiver 330. By way of example, the sensor(s) 344 mayinclude an accelerometer (e.g., a micro-electrical mechanical systems(MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), analtimeter (e.g., a barometric pressure altimeter), and/or any other typeof movement detection sensor. Moreover, the sensor(s) 344 may include aplurality of different types of devices and combine their outputs inorder to provide motion information. For example, the sensor(s) 344 mayuse a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and orientation sensorsto provide the ability to compute positions in two-dimensional (2D)and/or three-dimensional (3D) coordinate systems.

In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 providing meansfor providing indications (e.g., audible and/or visual indications) to auser and/or for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of asensing device such a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, and so on).Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 mayalso include user interfaces.

Referring to the one or more processors 384 in more detail, in thedownlink, IP packets from the network entity 306 may be provided to theprocessor 384. The one or more processors 384 may implementfunctionality for an RRC layer, a packet data convergence protocol(PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a medium accesscontrol (MAC) layer. The one or more processors 384 may provide RRClayer functionality associated with broadcasting of system information(e.g., master information block (MIB), system information blocks(SIBs)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRCconnection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRCconnection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configurationfor UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated withheader compression/decompression, security (ciphering, deciphering,integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover supportfunctions; RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer of upperlayer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ),concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units(SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC dataPDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping betweenlogical channels and transport channels, scheduling informationreporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channelprioritization.

The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement Layer-1 (L1)functionality associated with various signal processing functions.Layer-1, which includes a physical (PHY) layer, may include errordetection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC)coding/decoding of the transport channels, interleaving, rate matching,mapping onto physical channels, modulation/demodulation of physicalchannels, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handlesmapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes(e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying(QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation(M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split intoparallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with areference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and/or frequency domain, andthen combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) toproduce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream.The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to produce multiple spatialstreams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used todetermine the coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatialprocessing. The channel estimate may be derived from a reference signaland/or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Eachspatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with a respectivespatial stream for transmission.

At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives a signal through its respectiveantenna(s) 316. The receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto anRF carrier and provides the information to the one or more processors332. The transmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement Layer-1functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Thereceiver 312 may perform spatial processing on the information torecover any spatial streams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatialstreams are destined for the UE 302, they may be combined by thereceiver 312 into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 312 thenconverts the OFDM symbol stream from the time-domain to the frequencydomain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signalcomprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDMsignal. The symbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, arerecovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signalconstellation points transmitted by the base station 304. These softdecisions may be based on channel estimates computed by a channelestimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and de-interleaved torecover the data and control signals that were originally transmitted bythe base station 304 on the physical channel. The data and controlsignals are then provided to the one or more processors 332, whichimplements Layer-3 (L3) and Layer-2 (L2) functionality.

In the uplink, the one or more processors 332 provides demultiplexingbetween transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering,header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IPpackets from the core network. The one or more processors 332 are alsoresponsible for error detection.

Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlinktransmission by the base station 304, the one or more processors 332provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information(e.g., MIB, SIBs) acquisition, RRC connections, and measurementreporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with headercompression/decompression, and security (ciphering, deciphering,integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionalityassociated with the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correctionthrough ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs,re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; andMAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channelsand transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks(TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling informationreporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ), priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a referencesignal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used bythe transmitter 314 to select the appropriate coding and modulationschemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streamsgenerated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antenna(s)316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a respectivespatial stream for transmission.

The uplink transmission is processed at the base station 304 in a mannersimilar to that described in connection with the receiver function atthe UE 302. The receiver 352 receives a signal through its respectiveantenna(s) 356. The receiver 352 recovers information modulated onto anRF carrier and provides the information to the one or more processors384.

In the uplink, the one or more processors 384 provides demultiplexingbetween transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering,header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packetsfrom the UE 302. IP packets from the one or more processors 384 may beprovided to the core network. The one or more processors 384 are alsoresponsible for error detection.

For convenience, the UE 302, the base station 304, and/or the networkentity 306 are shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C as including variouscomponents that may be configured according to the various examplesdescribed herein. It will be appreciated, however, that the illustratedcomponents may have different functionality in different designs. Inparticular, various components in FIGS. 3A to 3C are optional inalternative configurations and the various aspects includeconfigurations that may vary due to design choice, costs, use of thedevice, or other considerations. For example, in case of FIG. 3A, aparticular implementation of UE 302 may omit the WWAN transceiver(s) 310(e.g., a wearable device or tablet computer or PC or laptop may haveWi-Fi and/or Bluetooth capability without cellular capability), or mayomit the short-range wireless transceiver(s) 320 (e.g., cellular-only,etc.), or may omit the satellite signal receiver 330, or may omit thesensor(s) 344, and so on. In another example, in case of FIG. 3B, aparticular implementation of the base station 304 may omit the WWANtransceiver(s) 350 (e.g., a Wi-Fi “hotspot” access point withoutcellular capability), or may omit the short-range wirelesstransceiver(s) 360 (e.g., cellular-only, etc.), or may omit thesatellite receiver 370, and so on. For brevity, illustration of thevarious alternative configurations is not provided herein, but would bereadily understandable to one skilled in the art.

The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and thenetwork entity 306 may be communicatively coupled to each other overdata buses 334, 382, and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses334, 382, and 392 may form, or be part of, a communication interface ofthe UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306,respectively. For example, where different logical entities are embodiedin the same device (e.g., gNB and location server functionalityincorporated into the same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382,and 392 may provide communication between them.

The components of FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C may be implemented in variousways. In some implementations, the components of FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3Cmay be implemented in one or more circuits such as, for example, one ormore processors and/or one or more ASICs (which may include one or moreprocessors). Here, each circuit may use and/or incorporate at least onememory component for storing information or executable code used by thecircuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of thefunctionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented byprocessor and memory component(s) of the UE 302 (e.g., by execution ofappropriate code and/or by appropriate configuration of processorcomponents). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented byblocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by processor and memorycomponent(s) of the base station 304 (e.g., by execution of appropriatecode and/or by appropriate configuration of processor components). Also,some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 may beimplemented by processor and memory component(s) of the network entity306 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and/or by appropriateconfiguration of processor components). For simplicity, variousoperations, acts, and/or functions are described herein as beingperformed “by a UE,” “by a base station,” “by a network entity,” etc.However, as will be appreciated, such operations, acts, and/or functionsmay actually be performed by specific components or combinations ofcomponents of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc.,such as the processors 332, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350,and 360, the memories 340, 386, and 396, the positioning component 342,388, and 398, etc.

In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a corenetwork component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may bedistinct from a network operator or operation of the cellular networkinfrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and/or 5GC 210/260). For example, thenetwork entity 306 may be a component of a private network that may beconfigured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 orindependently from the base station 304 (e.g., over a non-cellularcommunication link, such as WiFi).

NR supports a number of cellular network-based positioning technologies,including downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink-and-uplink-basedpositioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include observedtime difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference ofarrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink angle-of-departure (DL-AoD) in NR.In an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, a UE measures thedifferences between the times of arrival (ToAs) of reference signals(e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) received from pairs of basestations, referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or timedifference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports them to apositioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives the identifiers(IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) andmultiple non-reference base stations in assistance data. The UE thenmeasures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of thenon-reference base stations. Based on the known locations of theinvolved base stations and the RSTD measurements, the positioning entitycan estimate the UE’s location.

For DL-AoD positioning, the positioning entity uses a beam report fromthe UE of received signal strength measurements of multiple downlinktransmit beams to determine the angle(s) between the UE and thetransmitting base station(s). The positioning entity can then estimatethe location of the UE based on the determined angle(s) and the knownlocation(s) of the transmitting base station(s).

Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference ofarrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle-of-arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA issimilar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g.,sounding reference signals (SRS)) transmitted by the UE. For UL-AoApositioning, one or more base stations measure the received signalstrength of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) receivedfrom a UE on one or more uplink receive beams. The positioning entityuses the signal strength measurements and the angle(s) of the receivebeam(s) to determine the angle(s) between the UE and the basestation(s). Based on the determined angle(s) and the known location(s)of the base station(s), the positioning entity can then estimate thelocation of the UE.

Downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods include enhanced cell-ID(E-CID) positioning and multi-round-trip-time (RTT) positioning (alsoreferred to as “multi-cell RTT” and “multi-RTT”). In an RTT procedure, afirst entity (e.g., a base station or a UE) transmits a firstRTT-related signal (e.g., a PRS or SRS) to a second entity (e.g., a UEor base station), which transmits a second RTT-related signal (e.g., anSRS or PRS) back to the first entity. Each entity measures the timedifference between the time of arrival (ToA) of the received RTT-relatedsignal and the transmission time of the transmitted RTT-related signal.This time difference is referred to as a reception-to-transmission(Rx-Tx) time difference. The Rx-Tx time difference measurement may bemade, or may be adjusted, to include only a time difference betweennearest subframe boundaries for the received and transmitted signals.Both entities may then send their Rx-Tx time difference measurement to alocation server (e.g., an LMF 270), which calculates the round trippropagation time (i.e., RTT) between the two entities from the two Rx-Txtime difference measurements (e.g., as the sum of the two Rx-Tx timedifference measurements). Alternatively, one entity may send its Rx-Txtime difference measurement to the other entity, which then calculatesthe RTT. The distance between the two entities can be determined fromthe RTT and the known signal speed (e.g., the speed of light). Formulti-RTT positioning, a first entity (e.g., a UE or base station)performs an RTT positioning procedure with multiple second entities(e.g., multiple base stations or UEs) to enable the location of thefirst entity to be determined (e.g., using multilateration) based ondistances to, and the known locations of, the second entities. RTT andmulti-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques,such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD, to improve location accuracy.

The E-CID positioning method is based on radio resource management (RRM)measurements. In E-CID, the UE reports the serving cell ID, the timingadvance (TA), and the identifiers, estimated timing, and signal strengthof detected neighbor base stations. The location of the UE is thenestimated based on this information and the known locations of the basestation(s).

To assist positioning operations, a location server (e.g., locationserver 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. Forexample, the assistance data may include identifiers of the basestations (or the cells/TRPs of the base stations) from which to measurereference signals, the reference signal configuration parameters (e.g.,the number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity ofpositioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence,reference signal identifier, reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and/orother parameters applicable to the particular positioning method.Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the basestations themselves (e.g., in periodically broadcasted overheadmessages, etc.). In some cases, the UE may be able to detect neighbornetwork nodes itself without the use of assistance data.

In the case of an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, the assistancedata may further include an expected RSTD value and an associateduncertainty, or search window, around the expected RSTD. In some cases,the value range of the expected RSTD may be +/- 500 microseconds (µs).In some cases, when any of the resources used for the positioningmeasurement are in FR1, the value range for the uncertainty of theexpected RSTD may be +/- 32 µs. In other cases, when all of theresources used for the positioning measurement(s) are in FR2, the valuerange for the uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be +/- 8 µs.

A location estimate may be referred to by other names, such as aposition estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, or the like. Alocation estimate may be geodetic and comprise coordinates (e.g.,latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or may be civic and comprisea street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of alocation. A location estimate may further be defined relative to someother known location or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude,longitude, and possibly altitude). A location estimate may include anexpected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volumewithin which the location is expected to be included with some specifiedor default level of confidence).

FIG. 4 illustrates an example Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioningprotocol (LPP) procedure 400 between a UE 404 and a location server(illustrated as a location management function (LMF) 470) for performingpositioning operations. As illustrated in FIG. 4 , positioning of the UE404 is supported via an exchange of LPP messages between the UE 404 andthe LMF 470. The LPP messages may be exchanged between UE 404 and theLMF 470 via the UE’s 404 serving base station (illustrated as a servinggNB 402) and a core network (not shown). The LPP procedure 400 may beused to position the UE 404 in order to support various location-relatedservices, such as navigation for UE 404 (or for the user of UE 404), orfor routing, or for provision of an accurate location to a public safetyanswering point (PSAP) in association with an emergency call from UE 404to a PSAP, or for some other reason. The LPP procedure 400 may also bereferred to as a positioning session, and there may be multiplepositioning sessions for different types of positioning methods (e.g.,downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), round-trip-time (RTT),enhanced cell identity (E-CID), etc.).

Initially, the UE 404 may receive a request for its positioningcapabilities from the LMF 470 at stage 410 (e.g., an LPP RequestCapabilities message). At stage 420, the UE 404 provides its positioningcapabilities to the LMF 470 relative to the LPP protocol by sending anLPP Provide Capabilities message to LMF 470 indicating the positionmethods and features of these position methods that are supported by theUE 404 using LPP. The capabilities indicated in the LPP ProvideCapabilities message may, in some aspects, indicate the type ofpositioning the UE 404 supports (e.g., DL-TDOA, RTT, E-CID, etc.) andmay indicate the capabilities of the UE 404 to support those types ofpositioning.

Upon reception of the LPP Provide Capabilities message, at stage 420,the LMF 470 determines to use a particular type of positioning method(e.g., DL-TDOA, RTT, E-CID, etc.) based on the indicated type(s) ofpositioning the UE 404 supports and determines a set of one or moretransmission-reception points (TRPs) from which the UE 404 is to measuredownlink positioning reference signals or towards which the UE 404 is totransmit uplink positioning reference signals. At stage 430, the LMF 470sends an LPP Provide Assistance Data message to the UE 404 identifyingthe set of TRPs.

In some implementations, the LPP Provide Assistance Data message atstage 430 may be sent by the LMF 470 to the UE 404 in response to an LPPRequest Assistance Data message sent by the UE 404 to the LMF 470 (notshown in FIG. 4 ). An LPP Request Assistance Data message may include anidentifier of the UE’s 404 serving TRP and a request for the positioningreference signal (PRS) configuration of neighboring TRPs.

At stage 440, the LMF 470 sends a request for location information tothe UE 404. The request may be an LPP Request Location Informationmessage. This message usually includes information elements defining thelocation information type, desired accuracy of the location estimate,and response time (i.e., desired latency). Note that a low latencyrequirement allows for a longer response time while a high latencyrequirement requires a shorter response time. However, a long responsetime is referred to as high latency and a short response time isreferred to as low latency.

Note that in some implementations, the LPP Provide Assistance Datamessage sent at stage 430 may be sent after the LPP Request LocationInformation message at 440 if, for example, the UE 404 sends a requestfor assistance data to LMF 470 (e.g., in an LPP Request Assistance Datamessage, not shown in FIG. 4 ) after receiving the request for locationinformation at stage 440.

At stage 450, the UE 404 utilizes the assistance information received atstage 430 and any additional data (e.g., a desired location accuracy ora maximum response time) received at stage 440 to perform positioningoperations (e.g., measurements of DL-PRS, transmission of UL-PRS, etc.)for the selected positioning method.

At stage 460, the UE 404 may send an LPP Provide Location Informationmessage to the LMF 470 conveying the results of any measurements thatwere obtained at stage 450 (e.g., time of arrival (ToA), referencesignal time difference (RSTD), reception-to-transmission (Rx-Tx), etc.)and before or when any maximum response time has expired (e.g., amaximum response time provided by the LMF 470 at stage 440). The LPPProvide Location Information message at stage 460 may also include thetime (or times) at which the positioning measurements were obtained andthe identity of the TRP(s) from which the positioning measurements wereobtained. Note that the time between the request for locationinformation at 440 and the response at 460 is the “response time” andindicates the latency of the positioning session.

The LMF 470 computes an estimated location of the UE 404 using theappropriate positioning techniques (e.g., DL-TDOA, RTT, E-CID, etc.)based, at least in part, on measurements received in the LPP ProvideLocation Information message at stage 460.

Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplinktransmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs). FIG.5A is a diagram 500 illustrating an example frame structure, accordingto aspects of the disclosure. The frame structure may be a downlink oruplink frame structure. Other wireless communications technologies mayhave different frame structures and/or different channels.

LTE, and in some cases NR, utilizes OFDM on the downlink andsingle-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink.Unlike LTE, however, NR has an option to use OFDM on the uplink as well.OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K)orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones,bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general,modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in thetime domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may befixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on thesystem bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15kilohertz (kHz) and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) maybe 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal FFT size maybe equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25,2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidthmay also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz,respectively.

LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbollength, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies (µ),for example, subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz (µ=0), 30 kHz (µ=1), 60 kHz(µ=2), 120 kHz (µ=3), and 240 kHz (µ=4) or greater may be available. Ineach subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15 kHz SCS(µ=0), there is one slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, the slotduration is 1 millisecond (ms), the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds(µs), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4 K FFTsize is 50. For 30 kHz SCS (µ=1), there are two slots per subframe, 20slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.5 ms, the symbol duration is33.3 µs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4 KFFT size is 100. For 60 kHz SCS (µ=2), there are four slots persubframe, 40 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.25 ms, the symbolduration is 16.7 µs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz)with a 4 K FFT size is 200. For 120 kHz SCS (µ=3), there are eight slotsper subframe, 80 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.125 ms, thesymbol duration is 8.33 µs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (inMHz) with a 4 K FFT size is 400. For 240 kHz SCS (µ=4), there are 16slots per subframe, 160 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.0625 ms,the symbol duration is 4.17 µs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth(in MHz) with a 4 K FFT size is 800.

In the example of FIG. 5A, a numerology of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in thetime domain, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of1 ms each, and each subframe includes one time slot. In FIG. 5A, time isrepresented horizontally (on the X axis) with time increasing from leftto right, while frequency is represented vertically (on the Y axis) withfrequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

A resource grid may be used to represent time slots, each time slotincluding one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (alsoreferred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. Theresource grid is further divided into multiple resource elements (REs).An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and onesubcarrier in the frequency domain. In the numerology of FIG. 5A, for anormal cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers inthe frequency domain and seven consecutive symbols in the time domain,for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB may contain12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and six consecutivesymbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bitscarried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

Some of the REs may carry reference (pilot) signals (RS). The referencesignals may include positioning reference signals (PRS), trackingreference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signals (PTRS),cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel stateinformationreference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS),primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals(SSS), synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), sounding reference signals(SRS), etc., depending on whether the illustrated frame structure isused for uplink or downlink communication. FIG. 5A illustrates examplelocations of REs carrying a reference signal (labeled “R”).

PRS have been defined for NR positioning to enable UEs to detect andmeasure more neighboring TRPs. Several configurations are supported toenable a variety of deployments (e.g., indoor, outdoor, sub-6 GHz, mmW).In addition, beam sweeping is supported for PRS to support PRS beamoperation. The following table illustrates various types of referencesignals that can be used for various positioning methods supported inNR.

TABLE 1 DL/UL Reference Signals UE Measurements To support the followingpositioning techniques DL-PRS DL-RSTD DL-TDOA DL-PRS DL-PRS RSRPDL-TDOA, DL-AoD, Multi-RTT DL-PRS / SRS-for-positioning UE Rx-TxMulti-RTT SSB / CSI-RS for RRM Synchronization Signal (SS)-RSRP (RSRPfor RRM), SS-RSRQ (for RRM), CSI-RSRP (for E-CID RRM), CSI-RSRQ (forRRM)

A collection of resource elements (REs) that are used for transmissionof PRS is referred to as a “PRS resource.” The collection of resourceelements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and ‘N’ (such as1 or more) consecutive symbol(s) within a slot in the time domain. In agiven OFDM symbol in the time domain, a PRS resource occupiesconsecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

The transmission of a PRS resource within a given PRB has a particularcomb size (also referred to as the “comb density”). A comb size ‘N’represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency/tone spacing) withineach symbol of a PRS resource configuration. Specifically, for a combsize ‘N,’ PRS are transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of a symbol of aPRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the PRS resourceconfiguration, REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such assubcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit PRS of the PRS resource.Currently, comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 aresupported for DL-PRS. FIG. 5A illustrates an example PRS resourceconfiguration for comb-4 (which spans four symbols). That is, thelocations of the shaded REs (labeled “R”) indicate a comb-4 PRS resourceconfiguration.

Currently, a DL-PRS resource may span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbolswithin a slot with a fully frequency-domain staggered pattern. A DL-PRSresource can be configured in any higher layer configured downlink orflexible (FL) symbol of a slot. There may be a constant energy perresource element (EPRE) for all REs of a given DL-PRS resource. Thefollowing are the frequency offsets from symbol to symbol for comb sizes2, 4, 6, and 12 over 2, 4, 6, and 12 symbols. 2-symbol comb-2: {0, 1};4-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1}; 6-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1};12-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-4:{0, 2, 1, 3} (as in the example of FIG. 5A); 12-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1,3, 0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3}; 6-symbol comb-6: {0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5};12-symbol comb-6: {0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5}; and 12-symbolcomb-12: {0, 6, 3, 9, 1, 7, 4, 10, 2, 8, 5, 11}.

A “PRS resource set” is a set of PRS resources used for the transmissionof PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. Inaddition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated withthe same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set IDand is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID). Inaddition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the sameperiodicity, a common muting pattern configuration, and the samerepetition factor (such as “PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor”) across slots.The periodicity is the time from the first repetition of the first PRSresource of a first PRS instance to the same first repetition of thesame first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. The periodicity mayhave a length selected from 2^µ*{4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80,160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240} slots, with µ = 0, 1, 2, 3. Therepetition factor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16,32} slots.

A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam(or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where a TRP may transmit oneor more beams). That is, each PRS resource of a PRS resource set may betransmitted on a different beam, and as such, a “PRS resource,” orsimply “resource,” also can be referred to as a “beam.” Note that thisdoes not have any implications on whether the TRPs and the beams onwhich PRS are transmitted are known to the UE.

A “PRS instance” or “PRS occasion” is one instance of a periodicallyrepeated time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive slots)where PRS are expected to be transmitted. A PRS occasion also may bereferred to as a “PRS positioning occasion,” a “PRS positioninginstance, a “positioning occasion,” “a positioning instance,” a“positioning repetition,” or simply an “occasion,” an “instance,” or a“repetition.”

A “positioning frequency layer” (also referred to simply as a “frequencylayer”) is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets across one ormore TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters.Specifically, the collection of PRS resource sets has the samesubcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning all numerologiessupported for the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) are alsosupported for PRS), the same Point A, the same value of the downlink PRSbandwidth, the same start PRB (and center frequency), and the samecomb-size. The Point A parameter takes the value of the parameter“ARFCN-ValueNR” (where “ARFCN” stands for “absolute radio-frequencychannel number”) and is an identifier/code that specifies a pair ofphysical radio channel used for transmission and reception. The downlinkPRS bandwidth may have a granularity of four PRBs, with a minimum of 24PRBs and a maximum of 272 PRBs. Currently, up to four frequency layershave been defined, and up to two PRS resource sets may be configured perTRP per frequency layer.

The concept of a frequency layer is somewhat like the concept ofcomponent carriers and bandwidth parts (BWPs), but different in thatcomponent carriers and BWPs are used by one base station (or a macrocell base station and a small cell base station) to transmit datachannels, while frequency layers are used by several (usually three ormore) base stations to transmit PRS. A UE may indicate the number offrequency layers it can support when it sends the network itspositioning capabilities, such as during an LTE positioning protocol(LPP) session. For example, a UE may indicate whether it can support oneor four positioning frequency layers.

Note that the terms “positioning reference signal” and “PRS” generallyrefer to specific reference signals that are used for positioning in NRand LTE systems. However, as used herein, the terms “positioningreference signal” and “PRS” may also refer to any type of referencesignal that can be used for positioning, such as but not limited to, PRSas defined in LTE and NR, TRS, PTRS, CRS, CSI-RS, DMRS, PSS, SSS, SSB,SRS, UL-PRS, etc. In addition, the terms “positioning reference signal”and “PRS” may refer to downlink or uplink positioning reference signals,unless otherwise indicated by the context. If needed to furtherdistinguish the type of PRS, a downlink positioning reference signal maybe referred to as a “DL-PRS,” and an uplink positioning reference signal(e.g., an SRS-for-positioning, PTRS) may be referred to as an “UL-PRS.”In addition, for signals that may be transmitted in both the uplink anddownlink (e.g., DMRS, PTRS), the signals may be prepended with “UL” or“DL” to distinguish the direction. For example, “UL-DMRS” may bedifferentiated from “DL-DMRS.”

FIG. 5B is a diagram 550 illustrating various downlink channels withinan example downlink slot. In FIG. 5B, time is represented horizontally(on the X axis) with time increasing from left to right, while frequencyis represented vertically (on the Y axis) with frequency increasing (ordecreasing) from bottom to top. In the example of FIG. 5B, a numerologyof 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, the illustrated slot is onemillisecond (ms) in length, divided into 14 symbols.

In NR, the channel bandwidth, or system bandwidth, is divided intomultiple bandwidth parts (BWPs). A BWP is a contiguous set of RBsselected from a contiguous subset of the common RBs for a givennumerology on a given carrier. Generally, a maximum of four BWPs can bespecified in the downlink and uplink. That is, a UE can be configuredwith up to four BWPs on the downlink, and up to four BWPs on the uplink.Only one BWP (uplink or downlink) may be active at a given time, meaningthe UE may only receive or transmit over one BWP at a time. On thedownlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater thanthe bandwidth of the SSB, but it may or may not contain the SSB.

Referring to FIG. 5B, a primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used bya UE to determine subframe/symbol timing and a physical layer identity.A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by a UE to determine aphysical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Basedon the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identitygroup number, the UE can determine a PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE candetermine the locations of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physicalbroadcast channel (PBCH), which carries a master information block(MIB), may be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB(also referred to as an SS/PBCH). The MIB provides a number of RBs inthe downlink system bandwidth and a system frame number (SFN). Thephysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcastsystem information not transmitted through the PBCH, such as systeminformation blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink controlinformation (DCI) within one or more control channel elements (CCEs),each CCE including one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which may spanmultiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle including one ormore REGs, each REG corresponding to 12 resource elements (one resourceblock) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain.The set of physical resources used to carry the PDCCH/DCI is referred toin NR as the control resource set (CORESET). In NR, a PDCCH is confinedto a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enablesUE-specific beamforming for the PDCCH.

In the example of FIG. 5B, there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESETspans three symbols (although it may be only one or two symbols) in thetime domain. Unlike LTE control channels, which occupy the entire systembandwidth, in NR, PDCCH channels are localized to a specific region inthe frequency domain (i.e., a CORESET). Thus, the frequency component ofthe PDCCH shown in FIG. 5B is illustrated as less than a single BWP inthe frequency domain. Note that although the illustrated CORESET iscontiguous in the frequency domain, it need not be. In addition, theCORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resourceallocation (persistent and non-persistent) and descriptions aboutdownlink data transmitted to the UE, referred to as uplink and downlinkgrants, respectively. More specifically, the DCI indicates the resourcesscheduled for the downlink data channel (e.g., PDSCH) and the uplinkdata channel (e.g., physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)). Multiple(e.g., up to eight) DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIscan have one of multiple formats. For example, there are different DCIformats for uplink scheduling, for downlink scheduling, for uplinktransmit power control (TPC), etc. A PDCCH may be transported by 1, 2,4, 8, or 16 CCEs in order to accommodate different DCI payload sizes orcoding rates.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an example PRS configuration 600 for the PRStransmissions of a given base station, according to aspects of thedisclosure. In FIG. 6 , time is represented horizontally, increasingfrom left to right. Each long rectangle represents a slot and each short(shaded) rectangle represents an OFDM symbol. In the example of FIG. 6 ,a PRS resource set 610 (labeled “PRS resource set 1”) includes two PRSresources, a first PRS resource 612 (labeled “PRS resource 1”) and asecond PRS resource 614 (labeled “PRS resource 2”). The base stationtransmits PRS on the PRS resources 612 and 614 of the PRS resource set610.

The PRS resource set 610 has an occasion length (N_PRS) of two slots anda periodicity (T_PRS) of, for example, 160 slots or 160 milliseconds(ms) (for 15 kHz subcarrier spacing). As such, both the PRS resources612 and 614 are two consecutive slots in length and repeat every T_PRSslots, starting from the slot in which the first symbol of therespective PRS resource occurs. In the example of FIG. 6 , the PRSresource 612 has a symbol length (N_symb) of two symbols, and the PRSresource 614 has a symbol length (N_symb) of four symbols. The PRSresource 612 and the PRS resource 614 may be transmitted on separatebeams of the same base station.

Each instance of the PRS resource set 610, illustrated as instances 620a, 620 b, and 620 c, includes an occasion of length ‘2’ (i.e., N_PRS=2)for each PRS resource 612, 614 of the PRS resource set. The PRSresources 612 and 614 are repeated every T_PRS slots up to the mutingsequence periodicity T_REP. As such, a bitmap of length T_REP would beneeded to indicate which occasions of instances 620 a, 620 b, and 620 cof PRS resource set 610 are muted (i.e., not transmitted).

In an aspect, there may be additional constraints on the PRSconfiguration 600. For example, for all PRS resources (e.g., PRSresources 612, 614) of a PRS resource set (e.g., PRS resource set 610),the base station can configure the following parameters to be the same:(a) the occasion length (T_PRS), (b) the number of symbols (N_symb), (c)the comb type, and/or (d) the bandwidth. In addition, for all PRSresources of all PRS resource sets, the subcarrier spacing and thecyclic prefix can be configured to be the same for one base station orfor all base stations. Whether it is for one base station or all basestations may depend on the UE’s capability to support the first and/orsecond option.

As noted above, NR supports various DL-PRS resource repetition and beamsweeping options. There are several purposes for the repetition of aDL-PRS resource, including (1) receive beam sweeping across repetitions,(2) combining gains for coverage extension, and (3) intra-instancemuting. The following table shows the parameters to configure PRSrepetition.

TABLE 2 Parameter Functionality PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor Number oftimes each PRS resource is repeated for a single instance of the PRSresource set. Values: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32 PRS-ResourceTimeGap Offsetin units of slots between two repeated instances of a DL-PRS resourcecorresponding to the same PRS resource ID within a single instance ofthe DL-PRS resource set. Values: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32

FIG. 7 is a diagram of example PRS resource sets having different timegaps, according to aspects of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 7 ,time is represented horizontally and frequency is representedvertically. Each block represents a slot in the time domain and somebandwidth in the frequency domain.

FIG. 7 illustrates two DL-PRS resource set configurations, a firstDL-PRS resource set configuration 710 and a second DL-PRS resource setconfiguration 750. Each DL-PRS resource set configuration 710 and 750comprises four PRS resources (labeled “Resource 1,” “Resource 2,”“Resource 3,” and “Resource 4”) and has a repetition factor of four. Arepetition factor of four means that each of the four PRS resources isrepeated four times (i.e., is transmitted four times) within the DL-PRSresource set. That is, there are four repetitions of each of the fourPRS resources within the DL-PRS resource set.

The DL-PRS resource set configuration 710 has a time gap of one slot,meaning that each repetition of a PRS resource (e.g., “Resource 1”)starts on the first slot after the previous repetition of that PRSresource. Thus, as illustrated by DL-PRS resource set configuration 710,the four repetitions of each of the four PRS resources are groupedtogether. Specifically, the four repetitions of PRS resource “Resource1” occupy the first four slots (i.e., slots n to n+3) of the DL-PRSresource set configuration 710, the four repetitions of PRS resource“Resource 2” occupy the second four slots (i.e., slots n+4 to n+7), thefour repetitions of PRS resource “Resource 3” occupy the third fourslots (i.e., slots n+8 to n+11), and the four repetitions of PRSresource “Resource 4” occupy the last four slots (i.e., slots n+12 ton+15).

In contrast, the DL-PRS resource set configuration 750 has a time gap offour slots, meaning that each repetition of a PRS resource (e.g.,“Resource 2”) starts on the fourth slot after the previous repetition ofthat PRS resource. Thus, as illustrated by DL-PRS resource setconfiguration 750, the four repetitions of each of the four PRSresources are scheduled every fourth slot. For example, the fourrepetitions of PRS resource “Resource 1” occupy the first, fifth, ninth,and thirteenth slots (i.e., slots n, n+4, n+8, and n+12) of the DL-PRSresource set configuration 750.

Note that the time duration spanned by one DL-PRS resource setcontaining repeated DL-PRS resources, as illustrated in FIG. 7 , shouldnot exceed the PRS periodicity. In addition, UE receive beam sweeping,for receiving/measuring the DL-PRS resource set, is not specified, butrather, depends on UE implementation.

There are various UE capabilities related to the processing andbuffering requirements of DL-PRS. DL-PRS can be configured and scheduledto match the processing capabilities of the UE that will be measuringthe DL-PRS, or the UE may only be expected to measure the portion of theDL-PRS that it is capable of measuring. One parameter of a DL-PRS thatmay be configured based on UE capability includes a limit on the maximumnumber of DL-PRS resources configured to the UE for all TRPs within ameasurement window. Another is the duration of DL-PRS symbols (in unitsof milliseconds) that a UE can process every T ms, assuming a maximumPRS bandwidth. These parameters are illustrated below in Table 3 for LTEand NR.

TABLE 3 Parameter LTE PRS Baseline NR PRS Number of PRS resources perTRP Each TRP can configure 1 PRS resource every T ms Each TRP canconfigure X PRS resources every T ms Example: X = 64 for FR2, X = 8 forFR1 time division duplex (TDD) FFT size 2 K 4 K Number of OFDM symbolswith PRS per PRS resource 8 symbols per subframe with repetition over 6subframes Up to 12 symbols per slot with repetition of 32 slots

A UE may report the following parameters (e.g., in an LPP ProvideCapabilities message as at stage 420 of FIG. 4 ) to indicate its DL-PRSprocessing capabilities.

-   Type I PRS duration: a combination of (N, T) values per band, where    N is a duration of DL-PRS symbols in milliseconds (ms) processed    every T ms for a given maximum bandwidth (B) in MHz supported by the    UE. For example, values for N may be selected from the set of    {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50}    ms, values for T may be selected from the set of {8, 16, 20, 30, 40,    80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms, and values for the maximum bandwidth    reported by the UE may be selected from the set of {5, 10, 20, 40,    50, 80, 100, 200, 400} MHz.-   Type II PRS duration: the maximum number of DL-PRS resources N′ that    the UE can process in a slot. For FR1 bands, N′ may be selected from    the set of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} for each SCS (specifically, 15    kHz, 30 kHz, and 60 kHz). For FR2 bands, N′ may be selected from the    set of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64} for each SCS (specifically, 15 kHz,    30 kHz, and 60 kHz).-   The maximum number of positioning frequency layers supported by the    UE. The value may be selected from the set of {1, 2, 3, 4}.

The above parameters are reported assuming a configured measurement gapand a maximum ratio of measurement gap length (MGL) to measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) of no more than some ‘X’ percent. A measurementgap is a configured period of time during which the serving cellrefrains from transmitting to the UE so that the UE can receivetransmissions (e.g., downlink reference signals) from other cells.

FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating how the parameters of a measurementgap configuration specify a pattern of measurement gaps, according toaspects of the disclosure. The measurement gap offset (MGO) is theoffset of the start of the gap pattern from the start of a slot orsubframe within the measurement gap repetition period (MGRP). There arecurrently about 160 offset values, but not all of the values areapplicable for all periodicities. More specifically, the offset has avalue in the range from 0 to one less than the MGRP. Thus, for example,if the MGRP is 20 ms, then the offset can range from 0 to 19.

The measurement gap length (MGL) is the length of the measurement gap inmilliseconds. In NR Release 15, the measurement gap length can have avalue (in milliseconds) selected from the set of {1.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5.5,6}. In NR Release 16, the measurement gap length may have a value (inmilliseconds) selected from the set of {10, 18, 20, 34, 40, 50}. TheMGRP defines the periodicity (in ms) at which the measurement gaprepeats. Although not shown in FIG. 8 , a measurement gap configurationmay also include a measurement gap timing advance (MGTA) parameter. Ifconfigured, the MGTA indicates the amount of time before the occurrenceof the slot or subframe in which the measurement gap is configured tobegin. Currently, the MGTA can be 0.25 ms for FR2 or 0.5 ms for FR1.

There is one type of measurement gap in NR, meaning the same type ofmeasurement gap is to be used for both radio resource management (RRM)measurements (i.e., the measurements needed for an RRM report) and PRSmeasurements. In NR, the serving cell configures a UE with periodicmeasurement gaps during which the UE is expected to perform RRMmeasurements. In contrast, a UE requests measurement gaps for PRSmeasurements. It is up to UE implementation to prioritize PRSmeasurements over RRM measurements, since by default, RRM measurementswill have a higher priority, and the UE may not be able to perform bothat the same time.

A UE needs measurement gaps for PRS reception so that the UE will beable to allocate all of its processing capability to performing PRSmeasurements. In legacy technologies, such as LTE, measurement gaps areonly needed for inter-frequency or inter-RAT measurements. As such, atthe start of a measurement gap, the UE tunes to the target frequency,then performs the measurement, and then tunes back to the sourcefrequency at the end of the gap. No uplink transmission is permittedinside a measurement gap, as the UE is not synchronized to the uplinktiming for inter-frequency or inter-RAT cells. This is applicable toboth FDD and TDD structures. As in LTE, in NR, no uplink transmissionsare permitted inside a measurement gap.

A UE should have information about when DL-PRS are scheduled to betransmitted by the serving base station and any neighboring basestations involved in the positioning session. This information isavailable from the location server in the PRS configuration, asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 5 . As such, the UE can determinewhen to request measurement gaps.

The measurement gap defined in NR is like the measurement gaps definedin LTE. There is an agreement between the UE and the serving basestation that (1) the UE will not perform any uplink transmissions insidethe measurement gap and (2) the base station will not transmit anydownlink data inside the measurement gap. This is applicable for bothTDD and FDD type measurements.

FIG. 9 is a diagram 900 of an example PRS periodicity and time durationspanned by three DL-PRS resources based on a Type II UE durationcapability. In FIG. 9 , each block represents a symbol in the timedomain and each group of 14 symbols represents a slot. In the example ofFIG. 9 , there are three PRS resources (differentiated by differenthashing) transmitted on three symbols per slot.

L_(PRS) (denoted “L_PRS in the figure) represents the span of a PRSoccasion comprised of all PRS resources in the assistance data definedas the time from the first slot of the earliest PRS resource to the lastslot of latest PRS resource. Depending on UE capability for Type I orType II PRS duration calculation, L_(PRS) may account for the PRSsymbols of slots (Type I) or the entire slot if any of its symbols arePRS (Type II). As noted above, FIG. 9 shows L_(PRS) based on a Type IIUE capability. T_(PRS) (denoted “T_PRS” in the figure) represents thePRS periodicity among all DL-PRS resources of a resource set, and theparameter T_(PRS,max) represents the maximum PRS periodicity among allDL-PRS resources of a positioning frequency layer.

Other parameters that may be signaled or configured include

N_(PRS)^(slot),

which is the number of PRS resources in a slot as configured by theassistance data. The MGRP is the measurement gap period as configured byRRC. CSSF is the carrier-specific scaling factor for measurement withgap sharing with other RRM measurements. N_(Rx,beam) is the UE receive(Rx) beam sweeping factor for FR2. N_(sample) is the basic number of PRSoccasions needed to meet the accuracy requirement(s) for the positioningsession.

A “measurement period” is the time period during which the UE actuallymeasures PRS. More specifically, a measurement period is the time periodduring which the transmitted PRS are aligned with a measurement gap andthe UE’s capabilities are satisfied (i.e., the UE is capable ofmeasuring and processing PRS during that measurement gap).

The basic scaling factor for a measurement period should depend on theUE capabilities N and N′. If L_(PRS) ≤ N, then the UE only needs T ms toprocess the PRS resources. Otherwise, the UE needs to measure PRSresources in a round-robin fashion. Similarly, if the number of PRSresources in a slot,

N_(PRS)^(slot),

is equal to, or smaller than, N′, then the UE only needs T ms to processthe PRS resources. Otherwise, the measurement period is scaled similarlyas in the N case. Accordingly, the basic scaling factor for ameasurement period can be expressed as:

$\max\left( {\left\lceil \frac{L_{PRS}}{N} \right\rceil,\left\lceil \frac{N_{PRS}^{slot}}{N'} \right\rceil} \right)$

It has been agreed to define measurement requirements with onlymeasurement gaps, and therefore, the effective measurement gapperiodicity should be calculated for special values of T_(PRS), whichare powers of two. For instance, with T_(PRS) = 8 ms, the effectivemeasurement gap periodicity cannot be shorter than 40 ms, even if RRC(i.e., the serving base station via RRC) configures the UE with an MGRPof 20 ms. There are 23 distinct PRS periodicities based on allnumerologies and T_(PRS) values. Specifically, in units of ms, the valueof T_(PRS) may be selected from the set of {0.5, 0.625, 1, 1.25, 2, 2.5,4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120,10240}.

The present disclosure defines a parameter MGRP_(min) that representsthe minimum MGRP needed to align with T_(PRS) (i.e., fully overlap,meaning that each instance of PRS configured with periodicity T_(PRS) isinside a measurement gap instance). This could correspond to the minimumMGRP such that the following is true. First, it can be assumed that thestart of DL-PRS will occur at the same offset inside the measurement gapfor every measurement gap occasion. Second, MGRP_(min) is the minimumMGRP taken from the allowable set of MGRPs (i.e., the currently definedMGRPs configured via RRC) such that MGRP_(min) divided by T_(PRS) is aninteger larger than or equal to one.

Different T_(PRS) numerologies (e.g., T_(PRS) values of 2^(N) vs.5*2^(N)) lead to mismatches in MGRP based on 5*2^(N). FIG. 10illustrates different scenarios comparing the subframes (units of 1 ms)that each PRS occasion spans and the subframes that the closestmeasurement gap occasion covers, according to aspects of the disclosure.Table 1000 illustrates PRS periodicities of 64, 32, and 16 ms withL_(PRS) = 6 ms. Table 1050 illustrates PRS periodicities of 64, 32, and16 ms with L_(PRS) = 10 ms. For both cases, a measurement gap pattern of20 ms periodicity is assumed with a 6 ms length at offset 0. The cellsof each table are shaded to indicate a full overlap of MGL and L_(PRS),some overlap of MGL and L_(PRS), a small overlap of MGL and L_(PRS), andno overlap of MGL and L_(PRS).

As shown in table 1000, with L_(PRS) = 6 ms, for occasions that are nota multiple of 5, there is either no overlap at all or a very smalloverlap (e.g., 1 or 2 ms). Such a short overlap is long enough for tunein or tune out, but not both. As shown in table 1050, with L_(PRS) = 10ms, some occasions have approximately a 50% overlap between MGL and PRS,some have smaller overlaps, and one occasion has no overlap at all.

The following table summarizes values of MGRP_(min) for all values ofT_(PRS).

TABLE 4 T_(PRS) (ms) MGRP_(min) (ms) 10, 20, ≤ 5 20 8, 40 40 16, 80 8032, 160 160 64 320 ≥ 320 TPRS

The left column of Table 4 shows different values of T_(PRS). The rightcolumn of Table 4 shows the value of MGRP_(min) for the correspondingvalue(s) of T_(PRS). As can be seen, MGRP_(min) is the minimum MGRP(taken from the allowable set of MGRPs) such that MGRP_(min) divided byT_(PRS) is an integer larger than or equal to one. For example, for thesecond row, 40 (the MGRP_(min)) divided by 8 (the T_(PRS)) is 5, aninteger larger than or equal to one. Said another way, the MGRP_(min) isan integer multiple of the T_(PRS).

Consequently, the effective MGRP that should be used in determining themeasurement period is a function of MGRP_(min) and the actual MGRP thatis configured to the UE via RRC. More specifically, the effective MGRP(denoted MGRPe) for a PRS measurement can be defined as:

MGRP_(e) = max(MGRP,MGRP_(min))

where MGRP_(min) is defined in Table 4. The MGRPe may also be referredto as the “alignment periodicity” or “T_(available)” since MGRPeindicates the alignment, or overlap, of the configured MGRP and the MGRPthat is a multiple of T_(PRS) (i.e., MGRP_(min)). Thus, the alignmentperiodicity can also be said to be based on, or a function of, the MGRPand the PRS periodicity T_(PRS).

The basic time unit to determine the measurement periodicity wasproposed to be the maximum of (T, T_(PRS), MGRP). However, such aformulation is not always accurate. For instance, if T = 30 ms andT_(PRS) = MGRP = 20 ms, then the correct time unit to determine themeasurement period should be 40 ms, since it will take the UE 30 ms toprocess one PRS occasion and then the UE needs to wait for an additional10 ms until the next PRS occasion arrives. To address this issue, thebasic time unit can be modified as follows.

Specifically, the present disclosure defines the basic time unit used todetermine the measurement period as depending on MGRPe (i.e., thealignment periodicity) and the UE capability T (from the capability pair(N, T)). The basic time unit may also be referred to as the “effectivemeasurement periodicity” or “T_(effective)” because it is the effective,or actual, periodicity of the measurement period. Specifically, thebasic time unit, or effective measurement periodicity, can be expressedas:

$\left\lceil \frac{\text{T}}{\text{MGRP}_{\text{e}}} \right\rceil \cdot \text{MGRP}_{\text{e}}$

With this definition, the measurement period for an RSTD measurement(denoted “T_(RSTD)”) can be expressed as follows for the i-thpositioning frequency layer. The variables in the following equation aredefined above.

$\begin{array}{l}{T_{RSTD,i} =} \\{N_{Rx,beam}.N_{sample}.\text{CSSF}\text{.}\left\{ {\max\left( {\left\lceil \frac{L_{PRS}}{N} \right\rceil,\left\lceil \frac{N_{PRS}^{slot}}{N^{\prime}} \right\rceil} \right).\left\lceil \frac{\text{T}}{\text{MGRP}_{\text{e}}} \right\rceil \cdot \text{MGRP}_{\text{e}} + \text{T}} \right\}}\end{array}$

As shown in the above equation, the RSTD measurement period, T_(RSTD),is based on the disclosed basic scaling factor (Equation 1) and thebasic time unit (Equation 3).

As will be appreciated, the above techniques can be extended to othertypes of measurement periods, such as RTT measurement periods, ToA-basedmeasurement periods, RSRP measurement periods, etc.

In an aspect, the positioning accuracy or measurement periodrequirements can be defined only for the case that the configured MGRPis an integer (greater than or equal to one) multiple of the MGRP_(min),or when the periodicity of the PRS (T_(PRS)) is of the format 5*2^(N)and not for the case that it is of the format 2 ^(N) (e.g., T_(PRS) =20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 ms). That is, a UE would use the configuredMGRP, but would only be expected to meet the positioning accuracy ormeasurement period requirements if the configured MGRP is an integer(greater than or equal to one) multiple of the MGRP_(min). Said anotherway, since MGRP_(min) is an integer multiple of T_(PRS), the UE wouldonly be expected to meet the positioning accuracy or measurement periodrequirements if the configured MGRP is an integer multiple of the of thePRS periodicity T_(PRS).

FIG. 11 illustrates an example method 1100 of wireless positioning,according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, method 1100 may beperformed by a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

At 1110, the UE receives (e.g., in LPP assistance data, as at stage 430of FIG. 4 ) a PRS configuration for at least a first TRP (e.g., anon-serving TRP), the PRS configuration including at least a PRSperiodicity (T_(PRS)) defining repetitions of one or more PRS resourcesassociated with the first TRP. In an aspect, operation 1110 may beperformed by the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the one or moreprocessors 332, memory 340, and/or positioning component 342, any or allof which may be considered means for performing this operation.

At 1120, the UE receives (e.g., via RRC) a measurement gap configurationfrom a serving base station (e.g., any of the base stations describedherein), the measurement gap configuration indicating at least an MGRPdefining repetitions of a measurement gap. In an aspect, operation 1120may be performed by the one or more WWAN transceivers 310, the one ormore processors 332, memory 340, and/or positioning component 342, anyor all of which may be considered means for performing this operation.

At 1130, the UE performs one or more positioning measurements (e.g.,RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, ToA, RSRP, etc.) of at least the one ormore PRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurementperiod, the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having aneffective measurement periodicity (i.e., a basic time unit), theeffective measurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity(i.e., MGRPe) and a time period T (from the UE capability (N, T)) duringwhich the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignmentperiodicity based on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP. In an aspect,operation 1130 may be performed by the one or more WWAN transceivers310, the one or more processors 332, memory 340, and/or positioningcomponent 342, any or all of which may be considered means forperforming this operation.

As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of the method 1100 isimproved positioning due to alignment of the PRS periodicity and theMGRP used for the measurement period.

In the detailed description above it can be seen that different featuresare grouped together in examples. This manner of disclosure should notbe understood as an intention that the example clauses have morefeatures than are explicitly mentioned in each clause. Rather, thevarious aspects of the disclosure may include fewer than all features ofan individual example clause disclosed. Therefore, the following clausesshould hereby be deemed to be incorporated in the description, whereineach clause by itself can stand as a separate example. Although eachdependent clause can refer in the clauses to a specific combination withone of the other clauses, the aspect(s) of that dependent clause are notlimited to the specific combination. It will be appreciated that otherexample clauses can also include a combination of the dependent clauseaspect(s) with the subject matter of any other dependent clause orindependent clause or a combination of any feature with other dependentand independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein expresslyinclude these combinations, unless it is explicitly expressed or can bereadily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (e.g.,contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an insulatorand a conductor). Furthermore, it is also intended that aspects of aclause can be included in any other independent clause, even if theclause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1. A method of wireless positioning performed by a user equipment(UE), comprising: receiving a positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for at least a first transmission-reception point (TRP),the PRS configuration including at least a PRS periodicity definingrepetitions of one or more PRS resources associated with the first TRP;receiving a measurement gap configuration from a serving base station,the measurement gap configuration indicating at least a measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap; andperforming one or more positioning measurements of at least the one ormore PRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurementperiod, the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having aneffective measurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicitybased on an alignment periodicity and a time period T during which theUE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicitybased on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the effective measurementperiodicity is the alignment periodicity multiplied by a ceilingfunction of the time period T divided by the alignment periodicity.

Clause 3. The method of any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein the measurementperiod is determined for each positioning frequency layer of one or morepositioning frequency layers on which the UE is configured to measurePRS.

Clause 4. The method of any of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the alignmentperiodicity and the effective measurement periodicity are determined foreach positioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequencylayers on which the UE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the time periodT, the PRS periodicity, and the MGRP are determined for each positioningfrequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layers on which theUE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 1 to 5, wherein the alignmentperiodicity is based on an integer multiple of the PRS periodicity andthe MGRP.

Clause 7. The method of clause 6, wherein the integer multiple of thePRS periodicity is 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 milliseconds (ms) or the PRSperiodicity based on a value of the PRS periodicity.

Clause 8. The method of clause 7, wherein the integer multiple of thePRS periodicity is: 20 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicitybeing 10 ms, 20 ms, or less than or equal to 5 ms, 40 ms based on thevalue of the PRS periodicity being 8 ms or 40 ms, 80 ms based on thevalue of the PRS periodicity being 16 ms or 80 ms, 160 ms based on thevalue of the PRS periodicity being 32 ms or 160 ms, 320 ms based on thevalue of the PRS periodicity being 64 ms, or the PRS periodicity basedon the value of the PRS periodicity being greater than or equal to 320ms.

Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 1 to 8, wherein the one or morepositioning measurements are expected to meet an accuracy requirementonly if the MGRP is an integer multiple of the PRS periodicity.

Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein a start of theone or more PRS resources occurs at the same time offset inside themeasurement gap.

Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1 to 10, wherein the one or morepositioning measurements comprise one or more RSTD measurements, one ormore reception-to-transmission time difference measurements, one or moretime-of-arrival (ToA) measurements, one or more reference signalreceived power (RSRP) measurements, or any combination thereof.

Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 1 to 11, wherein the PRSconfiguration is received from a location server in Long-Term Evolution(LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) assistance data.

Clause 13. The method of any of clauses 1 to 12, wherein the measurementgap configuration is received from the serving base station via radioresource control (RRC) signaling.

Clause 14. A user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; at least onetransceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to thememory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processorconfigured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, a positioningreference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; receive, via the at least onetransceiver, a measurement gap configuration from a serving basestation, the measurement gap configuration indicating at least ameasurement gap repetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of ameasurement gap; and perform one or more positioning measurements of atleast the one or more PRS resources during one or more repetitions of ameasurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurementperiod having an effective measurement periodicity, the effectivemeasurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a timeperiod T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols,the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

Clause 15. The UE of clause 14, wherein the effective measurementperiodicity is the alignment periodicity multiplied by a ceilingfunction of the time period T divided by the alignment periodicity.

Clause 16. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 15, wherein the measurementperiod is determined for each positioning frequency layer of one or morepositioning frequency layers on which the UE is configured to measurePRS.

Clause 17. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 16, wherein the alignmentperiodicity and the effective measurement periodicity are determined foreach positioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequencylayers on which the UE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 18. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 17, wherein the time period T,the PRS periodicity, and the MGRP are determined for each positioningfrequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layers on which theUE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 19. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 18, wherein the alignmentperiodicity is based on an integer multiple of the PRS periodicity andthe MGRP.

Clause 20. The UE of clause 19, wherein the integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity is 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 milliseconds (ms) or the PRSperiodicity based on a value of the PRS periodicity.

Clause 21. The UE of clause 20, wherein the integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity is: 20 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 10ms, 20 ms, or less than or equal to 5 ms, 40 ms based on the value ofthe PRS periodicity being 8 ms or 40 ms, 80 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 16 ms or 80 ms, 160 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 32 ms or 160 ms, 320 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 64 ms, or the PRS periodicity based on the valueof the PRS periodicity being greater than or equal to 320 ms.

Clause 22. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 21, wherein the one or morepositioning measurements are expected to meet an accuracy requirementonly if the MGRP is an integer multiple of the PRS periodicity.

Clause 23. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 22, wherein a start of the oneor more PRS resources occurs at the same time offset inside themeasurement gap.

Clause 24. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 23, wherein the one or morepositioning measurements comprise one or more RSTD measurements, one ormore reception-to-transmission time difference measurements, one or moretime-of-arrival (ToA) measurements, one or more reference signalreceived power (RSRP) measurements, or any combination thereof.

Clause 25. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 24, wherein the PRSconfiguration is received from a location server in Long-Term Evolution(LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) assistance data.

Clause 26. The UE of any of clauses 14 to 25, wherein the measurementgap configuration is received from the serving base station via radioresource control (RRC) signaling.

Clause 27. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for receiving apositioning reference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; means for receiving ameasurement gap configuration from a serving base station, themeasurement gap configuration indicating at least a measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap; andmeans for performing one or more positioning measurements of at leastthe one or more PRS resources during one or more repetitions of ameasurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurementperiod having an effective measurement periodicity, the effectivemeasurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a timeperiod T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols,the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

Clause 28. The UE of clause 27, wherein the effective measurementperiodicity is the alignment periodicity multiplied by a ceilingfunction of the time period T divided by the alignment periodicity.

Clause 29. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 28, wherein the measurementperiod is determined for each positioning frequency layer of one or morepositioning frequency layers on which the UE is configured to measurePRS.

Clause 30. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 29, wherein the alignmentperiodicity and the effective measurement periodicity are determined foreach positioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequencylayers on which the UE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 31. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 30, wherein the time period T,the PRS periodicity, and the MGRP are determined for each positioningfrequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layers on which theUE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 32. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 31, wherein the alignmentperiodicity is based on an integer multiple of the PRS periodicity andthe MGRP.

Clause 33. The UE of clause 32, wherein the integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity is 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 milliseconds (ms) or the PRSperiodicity based on a value of the PRS periodicity.

Clause 34. The UE of clause 33, wherein the integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity is: 20 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 10ms, 20 ms, or less than or equal to 5 ms, 40 ms based on the value ofthe PRS periodicity being 8 ms or 40 ms, 80 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 16 ms or 80 ms, 160 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 32 ms or 160 ms, 320 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 64 ms, or the PRS periodicity based on the valueof the PRS periodicity being greater than or equal to 320 ms.

Clause 35. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 34, wherein the one or morepositioning measurements are expected to meet an accuracy requirementonly if the MGRP is an integer multiple of the PRS periodicity.

Clause 36. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 35, wherein a start of the oneor more PRS resources occurs at the same time offset inside themeasurement gap.

Clause 37. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 36, wherein the one or morepositioning measurements comprise one or more RSTD measurements, one ormore reception-to-transmission time difference measurements, one or moretime-of-arrival (ToA) measurements, one or more reference signalreceived power (RSRP) measurements, or any combination thereof.

Clause 38. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 37, wherein the PRSconfiguration is received from a location server in Long-Term Evolution(LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) assistance data.

Clause 39. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 38, wherein the measurementgap configuration is received from the serving base station via radioresource control (RRC) signaling.

Clause 40. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment(UE), cause the UE to: receive a positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for at least a first transmission-reception point (TRP),the PRS configuration including at least a PRS periodicity definingrepetitions of one or more PRS resources associated with the first TRP;receive a measurement gap configuration from a serving base station, themeasurement gap configuration indicating at least a measurement gaprepetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of at least the one or morePRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurement period,the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having aneffective measurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicitybased on an alignment periodicity and a time period T during which theUE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicitybased on the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

Clause 41. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 40,wherein the effective measurement periodicity is the alignmentperiodicity multiplied by a ceiling function of the time period Tdivided by the alignment periodicity.

Clause 42. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 41, wherein the measurement period is determined for eachpositioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layerson which the UE is configured to measure PRS.

Clause 43. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 42, wherein the alignment periodicity and the effectivemeasurement periodicity are determined for each positioning frequencylayer of one or more positioning frequency layers on which the UE isconfigured to measure PRS.

Clause 44. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 43, wherein the time period T, the PRS periodicity, and the MGRPare determined for each positioning frequency layer of one or morepositioning frequency layers on which the UE is configured to measurePRS.

Clause 45. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 44, wherein the alignment periodicity is based on an integermultiple of the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.

Clause 46. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 45,wherein the integer multiple of the PRS periodicity is 20, 40, 80, 160,or 320 milliseconds (ms) or the PRS periodicity based on a value of thePRS periodicity.

Clause 47. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 46,wherein the integer multiple of the PRS periodicity is: 20 ms based onthe value of the PRS periodicity being 10 ms, 20 ms, or less than orequal to 5 ms, 40 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 8ms or 40 ms, 80 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 16 msor 80 ms, 160 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 32 msor 160 ms, 320 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 64 ms,or the PRS periodicity based on the value of the PRS periodicity beinggreater than or equal to 320 ms.

Clause 48. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 47, wherein the one or more positioning measurements are expectedto meet an accuracy requirement only if the MGRP is an integer multipleof the PRS periodicity.

Clause 49. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 48, wherein a start of the one or more PRS resources occurs at thesame time offset inside the measurement gap.

Clause 50. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 49, wherein the one or more positioning measurements comprise oneor more RSTD measurements, one or more reception-to-transmission timedifference measurements, one or more time-of-arrival (ToA) measurements,one or more reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements, or anycombination thereof.

Clause 51. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 50, wherein the PRS configuration is received from a locationserver in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP)assistance data.

Clause 52. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses40 to 51, wherein the measurement gap configuration is received from theserving base station via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Further, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm stepsdescribed in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement thedescribed functionality in varying ways for each particular application,but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an ASIC, a field-programable gate array (FPGA), or otherprogrammable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discretehardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform thefunctions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be amicroprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be anyconventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. Aprocessor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices,for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other such configuration.

The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection withthe aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.A software module may reside in random access memory (RAM), flashmemory, read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, aremovable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known inthe art. An example storage medium is coupled to the processor such thatthe processor can read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in anASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In thealternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discretecomponents in a user terminal.

In one or more example aspects, the functions described may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computerstorage media and communication media including any medium thatfacilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Astorage media may be any available media that can be accessed by acomputer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code inthe form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed bya computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readablemedium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologiessuch as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiberoptic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such asinfrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc,optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray discwhere disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproducedata optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.

While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of thedisclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosureas defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and/or actionsof the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosuredescribed herein need not be performed in any particular order.Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described orclaimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation tothe singular is explicitly stated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of positioning performed by a locationserver, comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment, a positioningreference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; and receiving, from the UE, oneor more positioning measurements of at least the one or more PRSresources obtained by the UE during one or more repetitions of ameasurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurementperiod having an effective measurement periodicity, the effectivemeasurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a timeperiod T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols,the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and a measurementgap repetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the effective measurement periodicityis the alignment periodicity multiplied by a ceiling function of thetime period T divided by the alignment periodicity.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the measurement period is determined for eachpositioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layerson which the UE is configured to measure PRS.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the alignment periodicity and the effective measurementperiodicity are determined for each positioning frequency layer of oneor more positioning frequency layers on which the UE is configured tomeasure PRS.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the time period T, thePRS periodicity, and the MGRP are determined for each positioningfrequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layers on which theUE is configured to measure PRS.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thealignment periodicity is based on an integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity and the MGRP.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the integermultiple of the PRS periodicity is 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 milliseconds(ms) or the PRS periodicity based on a value of the PRS periodicity. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein the integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity is: 20 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 10ms, 20 ms, or less than or equal to 5 ms, 40 ms based on the value ofthe PRS periodicity being 8 ms or 40 ms, 80 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 16 ms or 80 ms, 160 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 32 ms or 160 ms, 320 ms based on the value of thePRS periodicity being 64 ms, or the PRS periodicity based on the valueof the PRS periodicity being greater than or equal to 320 ms.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the one or more positioning measurements areexpected to meet an accuracy requirement only if the MGRP is an integermultiple of the PRS periodicity.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein astart of the one or more PRS resources occurs at the same time offsetinside the measurement gap.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the oneor more positioning measurements comprise one or more RSTD measurements,one or more reception-to-transmission time difference measurements, oneor more time-of-arrival (ToA) measurements, one or more reference signalreceived power (RSRP) measurements, or any combination thereof.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the PRS configuration is transmitted to theUE in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) assistancedata.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving acapability message from the UE, the capability message including atleast the time period T and the duration N.
 14. A location server,comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least oneprocessor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least onetransceiver, the at least one processor configured to: transmit, to auser equipment (UE) via the at least one transceiver, a positioningreference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; and receive, from the UE, oneor more positioning measurements of at least the one or more PRSresources during one or more repetitions of a measurement period, theone or more repetitions of the measurement period having an effectivemeasurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicity based onan alignment periodicity and a time period T during which the UE canprocess a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicity based onthe PRS periodicity and a measurement gap repetition period (MGRP)defining repetitions of a measurement gap.
 15. The location server ofclaim 14, wherein the effective measurement periodicity is the alignmentperiodicity multiplied by a ceiling function of the time period Tdivided by the alignment periodicity.
 16. The location server of claim14, wherein the measurement period is determined for each positioningfrequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layers on which theUE is configured to measure PRS.
 17. The location server of claim 14,wherein the alignment periodicity and the effective measurementperiodicity are determined for each positioning frequency layer of oneor more positioning frequency layers on which the UE is configured tomeasure PRS.
 18. The location server of claim 14, wherein the timeperiod T, the PRS periodicity, and the MGRP are determined for eachpositioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layerson which the UE is configured to measure PRS.
 19. The location server ofclaim 14, wherein the alignment periodicity is based on an integermultiple of the PRS periodicity and the MGRP.
 20. The location server ofclaim 19, wherein the integer multiple of the PRS periodicity is 20, 40,80, 160, or 320 milliseconds (ms) or the PRS periodicity based on avalue of the PRS periodicity.
 21. The location server of claim 20,wherein the integer multiple of the PRS periodicity is: 20 ms based onthe value of the PRS periodicity being 10 ms, 20 ms, or less than orequal to 5 ms, 40 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 8ms or 40 ms, 80 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 16 msor 80 ms, 160 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 32 msor 160 ms, 320 ms based on the value of the PRS periodicity being 64 ms,or the PRS periodicity based on the value of the PRS periodicity beinggreater than or equal to 320 ms.
 22. The location server of claim 14,wherein the one or more positioning measurements are expected to meet anaccuracy requirement only if the MGRP is an integer multiple of the PRSperiodicity.
 23. The location server of claim 14, wherein a start of theone or more PRS resources occurs at the same time offset inside themeasurement gap.
 24. The location server of claim 14, wherein the one ormore positioning measurements comprise one or more RSTD measurements,one or more reception-to-transmission time difference measurements, oneor more time-of-arrival (ToA) measurements, one or more reference signalreceived power (RSRP) measurements, or any combination thereof.
 25. Thelocation server of claim 14, wherein the PRS configuration is receivedfrom a location server in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol(LPP) assistance data.
 26. The location server of claim 14, wherein themeasurement gap configuration is received from the serving base stationvia radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
 27. A location server,comprising: means for transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), apositioning reference signal (PRS) configuration for at least a firsttransmission-reception point (TRP), the PRS configuration including atleast a PRS periodicity defining repetitions of one or more PRSresources associated with the first TRP; and means for receiving, fromthe UE, one or more positioning measurements of at least the one or morePRS resources during one or more repetitions of a measurement period,the one or more repetitions of the measurement period having aneffective measurement periodicity, the effective measurement periodicitybased on an alignment periodicity and a time period T during which theUE can process a duration N of PRS symbols, the alignment periodicitybased on the PRS periodicity and a measurement gap repetition period(MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap.
 28. The locationserver of claim 27, wherein the effective measurement periodicity is thealignment periodicity multiplied by a ceiling function of the timeperiod T divided by the alignment periodicity.
 29. The location serverof claim 27, wherein the measurement period is determined for eachpositioning frequency layer of one or more positioning frequency layerson which the UE is configured to measure PRS.
 30. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that,when executed by a location server, cause the location server to:transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for at least a first transmission-reception point (TRP),the PRS configuration including at least a PRS periodicity definingrepetitions of one or more PRS resources associated with the first TRP;and receive, from the UE, one or more positioning measurements of atleast the one or more PRS resources during one or more repetitions of ameasurement period, the one or more repetitions of the measurementperiod having an effective measurement periodicity, the effectivemeasurement periodicity based on an alignment periodicity and a timeperiod T during which the UE can process a duration N of PRS symbols,the alignment periodicity based on the PRS periodicity and a measurementgap repetition period (MGRP) defining repetitions of a measurement gap.